World Hunger

An on going world crisis that our world has been fighting for years and will continue to fight for many more years to come is World Hunger. I find it surprising that every 3.6 seconds another child dies in the world because of hunger. Yet, most people go around living their lives thinking about the next piece of clothing that will come into style,or just don't bother to stop and think of the 35 million people who even though they still live in homes they are not able to get enough to eat, or the other million who have no homes and live off what they can find on the streets. It is incredible to think that more than one billion people don’t have enough to eat every day that is more than the equivalent of USA , Canada , and the European Union.

Although our world does produce the amount of food needed for everyone to have a piece of bread they meet restrictions on how they are able to pass them on to the other people of the world. Most countries either don’t have the rich soil needed to grow the food on or their people don’t have the income to purchase the food their country makes. The number ratio is that one in twelve people are malnourished and 160 million of them are under the age of five.

Another interesting fact that I found out in the video Hunger/ starvation in Africa on YouTube1xXD3MP53YXx. Hunger/Starvation. YouTube. 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgE5FvSowSI&feature=player_embedded. 9 March 2010  , is that the total assets of the three richest men in the world are more than the combination of the total GNP of all the least developing countries on our planet. Now I am not saying that the must spend all their money to save the world but they should lend a little more of a hand. Yet,this statement is more of a way to explain the difference in how our money is being distributed around the world. More than one billion people live on a daily income of less than one dollar, and 40% of the population or 2.6 billion people live on a daily income of 2 dollars a day.

People are trying to inform other humans about this crisis and what they can do to help so they can make a change, but our world still has a long way to go, and although the United States is going through its own crisis I do strongly believe that we Americans should do our best as a greater developed country to try and help those in need. It is known that with the money spent on the creation of a new missile a school filled with hungry children could be fed for 5 years. Many of us come together when a crisis comes knocking but we must come together for other reasons too, crisis add on to problems that already exist and we must fight those daily problems as they come along not all at once.A crisis cannot be stopped and will come knocking at your door at any given moment. Yet, starvation happens every day not every time a natural disaster occurs.

I know that our country gives lots of money in overseas aid, but the problem with that is that most of the money is not given to the people it is kept in the greedy hands of their government or leader. If this helping aid never gets to those in need of it how do we expect issues to get resolved in the first place, we have a growing crisis that even our government recognizes and accepts as a problem that is not easy to overcome. Senate Richard Lugar gave his speech titled Foreign Assistance and Development in a New EraSIDWashington. " Senator RichardLugar'sspeech on foreign Aid reform at 2010 SID- Washington Annual Dinner 1/3". YouTube. 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqAnpeLlaeQ&feature=player_embedded. 11 April 2010   were he goes on to explain the growing demands of food and supplies for the poor in the next years to come. If we continue on the path we are now nothing will ever get any better and we will only have to face a bigger issue with an uncontrolled growth. Also, to satisfy the world sanitation and food requirements would only cost 13 billion dollars, that is as much as the U.S and the European Union spend on perfume every year.

We have the organizations but we need everyone to get involved and lend a hand. What kind of person would go on living their wonderful life while more than 70% of our world is dying in a crisis that can’t be stopped? Now I know this is not an over night action or resolution or that the United States is the only one who needs to help. This must be a world wide movement and we must all come together to be a better planet.

One of the organizations that I worked with was the Contra Costa Food Bank Tomasini, Joan. "Give, Help, Volunteer". Contra Costa Food Bank. 2010http://www.foodbankccs.org/give-help/volunteer/index.html. 9 February 2010  , and even though I know that it is only used for community services I was glad to know i helped put boxes of food that were going to go to waist and gave them to those in need. Although as my progress continued at the food point I came to the conclusion that almost anyone could come and receive a box of food and some were in no dying need of it they just wanted the cheap way out. this information was handed to me by an ex-worker from the Contra Costa Food Bank who wished to stay anonymous. I also came to the realization about who misleading expiration dates can truly be. As I arrived to the food bank I was given a lesson about who to know when the food is good or when it's bad and as they explained I discovered that they were packaging food that had expiration dates from a year ago . So I asked myself if the food is still good why have those expiration dates when as a result many people throw away food if the date has passed. Now if all those people knew that expiration dates are only made for best by or how long they can stay on the shelf then most people will choose to keep the food and use it or give it to organizations who will make a better use for them if you won't.

Another factor I came to learn and understand better was what I had already started learning in my Government class, which is the structure of supply and demand. I came to see that the more humans on this planet the more demand for food the is and the more supply that needs to be made, yet as the demand goes up the cost must rise along with it. As this mini example of the demand rising for corn and along with it prices rise to meet the supply with the demand.So as the demand on food for starving people grows well then sow does the price on food and the products to grow food. These factors have affected Pakistan, Bangaloreans, and many more. As well as the world wide affect caused by wheat yet their problem is too much crops, which I still don't seem to comprehend how we can have too much crops. Yet, as the result of too much crops they could leave an acre or more of their land without planting and still make ends meat.

Most of our world hunger crisis would go a lot smoother if people let other countries come in and show people how they must farm and how to create the resources they need out of the land they have. One of the biggest issues with hungry countries is that most women have children like crazy thinking well if 5of my children will die then why not have eight. Yet they do not realize that they are bringing into the world more humans that cannot be fed which are what leads to the child's death. The world must educate them and this means within their own countries too that having children they cannot feed is not the way to resolve this crisis instead of overpopulating why not develop and grow as a nation. Within their countries is the answer, they must try and find a way to stop their controlling government and get one that is for the people and will help them grow as a whole and overcome their problem.

The world has many organizations that fight every day against this crisis and you could be a part of one of them there is World Vision, ACDI-VOCA, Action Against Hunger, Mazon, NetAid, 30 hour Famine, and many more found at bread.org. All have different ways to help out in case one way doesn't work for you then you can try another way anything to make it easier on you to make it easier on them. This is not a lost cause but it is a hard one to overcome. If we join together and give than one dollar to a starving child and pick eating something cheaper over expensive then slowly but surely we can overcome this struggle.